One Night with the Best Man(4)

But there was no reason for Justin to know that.

“Sometimes I have a boyfriend, but I don’t have one now. I could have gotten a date, but it would be awkward since I’ll be busy with bridesmaid stuff all weekend. I see you don’t have a girlfriend to bring either.”

“No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

For some reason, she was glad to hear that. It put them more on an equal playing field. But realizing she hadn’t been particularly nice so far, she added, “Well, I’m sure you could get one if you wanted.”

“Is that a joke?”

She blinked. “No. Of course, it’s not a joke. Why would you assume it’s a joke?”

He peered at her again and didn’t say anything.

Be nice. Be nice. Be extra nice.

“Thanks again for picking me up.”

He frowned, looking both surprised and displeased. “You don’t have to thank me again.”

“Well, I appreciate it. You had to go out of your way, and it would have been a real pain for me if I’d had to find another way to get there.” She smiled at him. Usually, her smile was enough to disarm anyone’s bad mood. She’d always been able to get people to return it, even if they were in a bad mood.

But Justin just frowned even deeper. Glancing over from the road, he scanned her face. “Why are you acting that way?”

“What way?”

“I don’t know. Did you take something before I picked you up?”

She gave a little gasp and stopped smiling.

Her mission this weekend was going to be harder than she thought.

***

They didn’t talk that much for the next half-hour. Raney tried to make some casual conversation, but somehow it all fell flat. Justin was never really mean, but he was either distant or kind of snarky. Finally, she gave up and stared out the window as they drove.

When they first met, they’d been able to talk a lot. Sure, there had been a lot of discussion about Lord of the Rings and computer games she’d never heard of, but they’d talked about other stuff too—Jake and Anne and food and their parents and their jobs and places they wanted to travel.

Justin had traveled a lot, but Raney hadn’t, and at the engagement party she’d gone over her whole list of travel destinations she wanted to get to before she died. She’d thought Justin had been interested in them. It had been so strange—to feel like a guy was really listening to her and not just thinking about how to get her into bed or how to get back to a TV to watch the game.

She tried again to remember if she’d accidentally said something he’d taken the wrong way. The change had come after that lunch where he’d regaled her with elvish. But she hadn’t made fun of it or anything. She hadn’t even wanted to. Maybe he’d misread her expression and assumed she was judging him.

It honestly kind of hurt that he’d changed so much since that day. She’d liked the excitement he’d had in going over the development of Tolkien’s languages. He’d been so passionate. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would be that passionate about a woman.

The first thing she’d asked him about at the engagement party when she first met him was his brother, and that had led to a good conversation, so she decided to try it again. After several minutes of silence, she turned toward Justin and asked, “How much older is Jake than you?”

“Eight years.”

Raney blinked. Jake was in his late thirties, more than ten years older than Anne. She’d known Justin was a lot younger than his brother, but that was even bigger a gap than she’d expected. “That’s a big age difference.”

“Yeah. I was a surprise.”

“Oh, really? Your parents told you that?”

“Sure. They were happy enough, but they weren’t planning on another baby. They were both in their forties when I was born.”

She was encouraged that he seemed to be answering for real, and she was genuinely interested, so she asked, “Was it strange? To have such a big age difference between you and your brother?”

“I don’t know, since I didn’t know any different. We weren’t really close growing up, since he was heading to college when I was ten.”

“Did you get closer once you were both adults?”

“Yeah. I think so. We’re pretty different, of course.”

“I guess so. Did you ever surf?”

Justin gave a little snort. “Yeah, right.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Do I seem like a surfer to you?”

“No, but Jake doesn’t really either. Now East—he seems like a surfer.”

East was Meg’s boyfriend, and was the most casual, laidback person Raney had ever met.